Table Of ContentTHE MINDER BRAIN
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J O E H E R B E R T
Cambridge University, UK
World Scientific
N E W J E R S E Y • L O N D O N • S I N G A P O R E • B E I J I N G • S H A N G H A I • H O N G K O N G • TA I P E I • C H E N N A I
Published by
World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
5 Toh Tuck Link, Singapore 596224
USA office: 27 Warren Street, Suite 401-402, Hackensack, NJ 07601
UK office: 57 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9HE
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
THE MINDER BRAIN
How Your Brain Keeps You Alive, Protects You from Danger, and
Ensures that You Reproduce
Copyright © 2007 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval
system now known or to be invented, without written permission from the Publisher.
For photocopying of material in this volume, please pay a copying fee through the Copyright
Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. In this case permission to
photocopy is not required from the publisher.
ISBN-13 978-981-270-394-1
ISBN-10 981-270-394-2
ISBN-13 978-981-270-395-8 (pbk)
ISBN-10 981-270-395-0 (pbk)
Typeset by Stallion Press
Email: [email protected]
Printed in Singapore.
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For Rachel, Daniel and Oliver, and in memory of Elisabeth.
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Foreword
Like most scientists, I am incurably excited by what I do. Not by the
drudgery of getting grants, sitting on committees, writing reports, or
dealing with increasingly convoluted administration; but that’s all part of
the deal. What really matters in knowing that each Monday you go into the
laboratory and think, talk or even do something that just might lift a tiny
corner of the vast curtain of ignorance that surrounds our knowledge of that
incredible 1500 grams of tissue we call the brain. For amongst those cells
and tangled fibres lie you and me. Ambition, genius, thought, imagination,
love, hate, greed and, above all, consciousness of ourselves as alive and as
part of our world — all this is somehow enabled by the brain. The brain is
the person, and if it goes wrong, a person is ruined. This book is about part
of what the brain does — a role of which many of us are hardly aware of
but one that has ensured, over the millennia, that there are still humans on
the earth. Despite famine, drought, wars, cold, infections and hostile
environments of all sorts, we survive as a species though not always as
individuals. All this time, our brains have been coping with most of what
fate throws at us, a process that some call adaptation. How does the brain
do it? How does it know what’s needed? How does it enable us to provide
that need? How much do we depend on our own brains, or on those of
others? That’s what this book is about; thinking about it is not only
immensely challenging, it’s also immense fun.
Nothing is more telling than the criticism or applause of friends and
colleagues; I sent them chapters nervously. Barry Keverne was my first
post-doc when I went to Cambridge all those years ago, and is now a
distinguished behavioural scientist; Michael Hastings also worked with me
many years ago and is now prominent in the field of circadian neurobiology;
vii
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viii The Minder Brain
Tirril Harris and George Brown are close collaborators and eminent
sociologists, Richard le Page is a colleague and a parasitologist from my
College and a skilled writer to boot, and Jeremy Prynne, another College
colleague, is not only a stylist of repute but also a poet of distinction;
Richard Green, an eminent psychiatrist and a notable author, has been a
friend for 40 years, Anna Wirz is well-known for her work on rhythms,
Jenny Barna, a biochemist, has been a most friendly and informed critic,
Catherine Snow is an eminent linguist, Debbie Ganz is a skilled science and
technical writer. Some read a chapter or two, others most of the book.
Distinguished and busy, but immeasurably generous, people; I am deeply
grateful to them all, and to Ching Ting Ang, my indefatigable editor and
Surah Boobis, who prepared the index.
My University has provided — and goes on providing — a
marvellously encouraging environment for research. Cambridge is rightly
world-famous, because the people there are not only very good and
creative, but also very companionable and generous with their time, their
expertise and amenities. Every day is a tutorial, every week opens new
doors, every year sees influxes of more bright people to stimulate, educate
and sometimes infuriate the rest of us. In Cambridge, if you don’t know
something, pick up a phone or send an email and you’ll find someone who
does, and who is prepared to tell you about it. Beware of thinking how
good you are, for within so short a time you’ll meet someone better! My
College, Gonville and Caius, is one of the glories of Cambridge. Our
students treasure their all-too-short three years there; teaching them is a
pleasure which the years don’t diminish. My fellow Fellows provide not
only persistent entertainment and friendship, but the sort of intellectual
work-outs many would pay for. I have been blessed with a succession of
delightful colleagues, collaborators, post-docs, graduate students and
technicians; some have worked with me for lengthy years (and still do).
Many of the ideas in this book, I am sure, depend on them. You can’t do
modern science without funds. Over the years the Wellcome Trust, that
most imaginative institution, has been a constant provider. And... like all
scientists, I am deeply aware that my family not only support me, but also
tolerate me (in a slightly puzzled way): the absences (both physical and
mental), the long hours, the not-so-good pay. My book is therefore
dedicated to them with deepest gratitude.
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Foreword ix
You will find, alongside the text, quotations from two sources:
scientific papers, to give those who are unfamiliar with professional
science a feel for how scientists write about their subject, that they often
disagree, and to provide support and illumination for what I say in the
text; and brief extracts from a variety of ‘literary’ sources that I’ve
enjoyed over the years. The latter idea derives from an excellent book
called ‘The Sickening Mind’ by my former colleague Paul Martin, who
makes the point that novelists and poets are much better than scientists at
depicting life in all its variety; since this book is concerned about how the
brain represents and deals with the vicissitudes of those lives, I have used
their skill to show what it is I am trying to explain. Re-reading these
books has added to the pleasure of writing mine.
Description:Ambition, genius, thought, imagination, love, hate, greed and, above all, consciousness ourselves as alive and as part of our world all this is somehow enabled by the brain. The brain is the person, and if it goes wrong, a person is ruined. This book is about part of what the brain does a role of wh
